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Local community organisations, clubs, courses and programmesRoyal Society Prizes for Science Books
The Royal Society Prizes for Science Books are an annual book prize, which celebrate the best in popular science writing for adults and children. They were set up in 1988 as the 'Science Book Prizes', and started out as a collaboration between Copus, which was hosted by the Royal Society, and the Science Museum. From 1990 to 1999 the Prizes were sponsored by international life sciences and speciality chemical company Rhone-Poulenc.
Following the merger between the Prizes' sponsor Rhone-Poulenc and Hoechst AG to form Aventis, the Prizes changed their name in 2000 to become the Aventis Prizes for Science Books. The Copus Council is no longer in existence, and the Prizes are now owned by the Royal Society, the UK national academy of science. They are managed by the Royal Society, in cooperation with Aventis, a world leader in pharmaceuticals.
There are two categories: The Junior Prize, which is given to the best book written for under-14s, and the General Prize, for the best book written for a more general readership. Each prize is worth £10,000 to the winning author and £1,000 to each of the shortlisted authors. Aventis Prizes for Science Books website
